The subject matter herein relates generally to component feeding systems.
Component feeding machines are in use for feeding electrical components along a tray or conveyor system, where the electrical components can be picked and placed by a machine during an assembly process. For example, contacts and other components may be fed to a robot that picks the contacts or components up and places them in a housing to form an electrical connector. Conventional feeding machines are not without disadvantages. For instance, feeding systems use dedicated feeding machines that are designed to feed one particular type and/or size of component. Different components with different geometry and/or different materials need different feeding machines or changes to the machines. Significant tooling is required to change from one product to another product leading to significant down-time. Additionally, the robot that is used to pick up the component is typically configured to only pick up one particular type of component. A tooling change-over and new control logic is needed for the robot to pick up different components. The feeding machine is taken off-line and processing is stopped to complete the change over.
There is a need for a cost effective automated process of sorting components without human operator intervention.